Puppetmasters: The Political Use of Terrorism in Italy (Puppet Masters)

In the two decades since 1969, Italy has suffered one of the most bloody and protracted periods of terrorist violence ever seen in a modern industrialized society. The first phase, which lasted until 1974, was characterized mainly by right-wing terrorism and, in particular, by indiscriminate bombings against the public. It is clear that many right-wing terrorists were manipulated and controlled by the Italian secret services, who frequently intervened to confuse judicial investigators and to protect terrorist suspects from arrest. "Puppetmasters" reveals how this this strategy was the result of secret NATO accords and was sanctioned at the highest levels of the Atlantic Alliance. The book shows the crucial role played by the Hyperion Language School in Paris in the manipulation of the Red Brigades and the role of the CIA in arming the revolutionary groups. But the spotlight falls on Licio Gelli, the head of the now outlawed P2 masonic lodge, who has been convicted of financing fascist terrorists.

Gelli has publicly referred to himself as a "puppetmaster" but it can now be revealed that the strings which controlled the P2 boss stretched right up to the highest reaches of political power in the United States of America.